After playing BWE3, I tried to figure out the aggro system on this game. Unfortunately, it said on the Wiki that it was usually based on the distance you are from the target, but in pretty much every occasion of group fighting, this was never the case?

Can someone clarify how the hell aggro works, I know some mobs have special mechanics for aggro before people bash me for asking this..

There are some factors that most enemies have, such as your proximity to them and the amount of damage your are dealing.

However, it has been indicated that enemies have a wide variety of AI. There are additional factors that the enemies can take into account, and each enemy might value each factor differently.

Armor
Health
Damage
Distance
Weapons

The complicated part comes in because each AI might value them all... very differently. For example, one enemy might value your health as being the most important factor, and will generally target your ally with the lowest health. Or maybe the enemy values armor value the most, or the amount of damage you're dealing, or how close/far away you are.

Ahh I see. Thanks for clearing that up Alaroxr! So, I guess there is no way of telling who the mob is gonna go for? Unless of course you record each mobs different aggro attributes for future use?

Generally the enemies will take these into consideration in this order:

1.) Proximity. Closer, the more aggro.

2.) Damage. Higher, the more aggro.

3.) Health. Lower, the more aggro.

That's what you can expect, and you won't see much differentiation from that. You may find enemies that break that mold, or you may see enemies randomly go against that, but it's best to base your decisions off of the above.

The only time you should really expect to see an enemy breaking this is for Boss type enemies.

I tried this with a friend on wvw wolves, similar level and stats, same equip. The first attacker gets initial aggro. We has been both on range, but i was closer at the wolf then my buddy. The first step of the wolf was going in the direction of my friend, but half a sec later he recognised me due to the closer range and attacked me down to 30% HP. We both cc`d the wolf and i was fleeing on range, my buddy attacked the wolf from very short range - but he was fully ignored. Meanwhile i was running away my buddy has pulled another wolf and after the first half secound he recognized me too and attacked me instead of him! At this moment i was thinking HP > range > dmg, but he pulled a leopard as third mob although i was very low on hp and attacking the leopard he ignored me during the whole fight and prioriced my buddy. Iam very confused now! Maybe same type of enemy attacks the one who was low due to another enemy of his type and another one is ignoring this cause the leopard didnt any dmg to me and the wolf did.. I hope i explained it well enough to understand... xD